Category Archives: life stories

June 23, 2014 · 9:18 am

Low Cost Precision Weapons: A Bibliography on Suicide Attacks

Courtesy of The Poor Man’s Smart Bomb at http://pmsmartbomb.wordpress.com/suicide-attacks%C2%A0bibliography/

twin towers burnI thought it might be useful to share this list of articles and books relating to suicide attacks. This is an ongoing effort and is by no means comprehensive and is fairly narrowly focused – I have no intention of trying to catalogue all materials related to terrorism and insurgency. I’ll be updating the bibliography as I go along. If you notice any glaring omissions or have suggestions for new material, please comment below or email me at pmsmartbomb at gmail dot com.

21-Black Tigers Marching Black Tigers marching

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June 23, 2014 · 8:31 am

Sri Lankan Muslims at the Cross-roads … the full monty

Izeth Hussain, courtesy of The Island, where it appeared in a four-part series recently in May-June 2014

    Izeth-Hussain                    PART I      2a-Moorman Tamby =213

My last two articles in the Island were under the title Making sense of the Bodu Bala Sena, focusing in both of them on the anti-Muslim campaign of the BBS. There is now a view, still at the incipient stage but which can soon gain wide currency, that the BBS is on the way out. The argument is that extremist movements such as the BBS have no staying power in Sri Lanka, and that the forces of Buddhist moderation are now working to bring about the quick demise of the BBS and related extremist groups. But I began the first of my last two articles by pointing out that the conventional wisdom for well over a year – shared by the President himself – had it that if the BBS were ignored it would evaporate after some time. It did not, and in recent times it showed a renewed virulence.

 52-Muslim men prepare for worship Continue reading →

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June 22, 2014 · 1:52 pm

The Aluthgama Violence, US Embassy, BBS and Gotabhaya in Perspective

C. A. Chandraprema, in The Island, 21 June 2014

When this writer logged onto the Colombo US Embassy website at 8.30pm on Friday June 20, we found a statement issued on 16 June 2014 which went as follows: “The U.S.  Embassy condemns the violence that has spread over the weekend in Alutgama and Beruwela. We urge the government to ensure that order is preserved and the lives of all citizens, places of worship, and property are protected.   We urge the authorities to investigate these attacks and bring those responsible to justice. We also urge all sides to refrain from violence, exercise restraint, and respect the rule of law.”

Right below that statement on the web page was a photograph reproduced on this page, of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa with Galagodaatte Gnanasara and other BBS monks. The photograph was captioned “President Mahindha Rajapaksha’s brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksha with Sri Lankan terrorist Bodu Bala Sena”  (See: http://srilanka.usembassy.gov/pr-16june14.html)

GOTHA and BBS - island  Continue reading →

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June 22, 2014 · 1:26 pm

Editorials of English-media newspapers criticise the BBS vehemently

I. Editorial in The Island, 20 June 2014 entitled “Unstoppable psychos”

Prabhakaran is long dead and his mindless violence is a thing of the past. But, the country is not yet free from terrorism as has been seen from Sunday’s violence. Close on the heels of anti-Muslim attacks in Alutgama and Beruwala has come a dastardly assault on a Buddhist monk—not by non-Buddhists but by a group in yellow robes, according to the victim.

Ven. Watareka Vijitha Thera was abducted, assaulted and dumped on a road in the early hours of Thursday. Prior to the attack he had complained to the police that his life was in danger following an incident where he was threatened by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), which also disrupted a multi-religious event he was attending. Subsequently, he was roughed up in public. Two policemen assigned to protect him were withdrawn about two weeks before Thursday’s incident. Why was he deprived of security in spite of threats to his life? An explanation is called for. Continue reading →

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June 19, 2014 · 1:53 pm

American gaolhouse conditions nurtured the ISIS leaders

Anthony Loyd, courtesy of The Times and The Australian, 16 June where the title reads “Syrian gravesite marks ISIS beginnings”

AN anonymous grave in a rural cemetery in northern Syria marks the final resting place of the myster­ious terrorist mastermind whose legacy is tearing Iraq apart.Under the sun-bleached soil outside Tal Rifat, marked only by a pair of besser bricks and a wild poppy, lies the right-hand man and military mentor of ISIS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

ABU-BAKRCodenamed Haji Bakr, an Iraqi, the dead man defied every cliche written about the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham — in his life and the manner of death. Killed early in January with a machine gun in his hands, he died in a shoot-out alongside his gun-toting Iraqi wife after their house was surrounded by local Syrian rebels as fighting between ISIS and its erstwhile allies raged. Continue reading →

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June 17, 2014 · 2:47 pm

Prabhākaran’s Megalomanic Bonapartism juxtaposed with Sinhala Buddhist petty Bonapartism

Jane Russell, in a Blog Comment, dated 21 March 2013, on an article by Izeth Hussain on “Racism and Irrationality as Bedfellows: The Halal Issue and Sinhala Buddhist Extremists”

BBS--nation

Izeth Hussain’s article elegantly explains and confronts what on the surface looks like “good ole’ Sinhalese racism’ on the upsurge, after a few years of triumphalist satiation over its victory over the LTTE. Yup, as expected, money, amour propre and stupidity are at the root of it….a minor trade squabble has been inflated (at the speed of light it seems) by Buddhist monks greedy for power, status and money and a government inebriated with hubris and rotten with corruption into a “series of racist incidents”… and just in time for the UNHRC meeting!!! Indeed, as Izeth suggests, one suspects dark artistes of unnamed secret services must be at work here……Can any national government worth its name be this myopic? Sadly, it would appear so….poor Sri Lanka, mired for so long in a megalomanic miasma created by the petty-Bonapartist LTTE is now foundering in another fog of credulity orchestrated by Sinhalese petty-Bonapartists! Bah to all Bonapartists…go find yourselves an empire elsewhere and leave this poor island and its (by far the greater majority of) sweet vegetarian Sinhala-Buddhist people, obsessed with lighting lamps and throwing water on trees well alone! Continue reading →

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June 17, 2014 · 1:46 pm

Groundviews’ Declamation against Violence in Aluthgama does the round seeking signatures of worldwide support

Sri Lankan Government: Take Urgent Action to Stop Attacks on Muslims  …. go to https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxbk4wYolphwOTRPUU40bUtDZnc/edit … and Sign if in agreement

We the undersigned citizens of Sri Lanka strongly condemn the Bodu Bala Sena’s (BBS) highly inflammatory hate speech against and brazen physical attacks on the Muslim community in Aluthgama, Beruwala, Welipenna and Dharga-Town in June 2014. We believe that the violence is directly linked to recent statements by the BBS targeting Muslims. We call upon the authorities to immediately conduct independent investigations into the incidents, and hold to account perpetrators and those complicit in such acts.

Aluthgama-attacks 11

We believe inflammatory statements by the General Secretary of the BBS, Galagodathera Gnanasara, clearly demonstrates his pivotal role and responsibility for the violence. We therefore call upon the authorities to take immediate steps to arrest and charge him for the deaths and destruction in the area. Continue reading →

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June 15, 2014 · 2:34 pm

Solheim weighs in: Critical Review of Sri Lanka’s Path to Peace in Q and A with Sulochana Mohan

Sulochana Ramiah Mohan

Former Norwegian politician, Erik Solheim, who became a household name in Sri Lanka as a peace envoy who tried and failed to make peace between the Tamil Tigers and the government, in an exclusive interview with Ceylon Today, said the war was won at a tremendous cost and that he would stand as witness before any recognized international tribunal, if asked to do so, on war crimes allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan Government.    Solheim, who is now the Chair of the Development Assistance Committee in the USA, is planning to launch a book, early next year, on his mission as a peace envoy during the bloody civil war, highlighting the ‘actions’ of the politicians and the Tamil Tigers involved in the process.

Tamilchelvan + Solheim Thamilchelvam of LTTE with Eric Solheim

Q: According to the media you are gearing up to launch a book on the role of Norway as a peace mediator in Sri Lanka. What is the title of the book? A: The title of the book is not yet decided. The book is a joint effort with Vidar Helgesen, a Norwegian diplomat and politician. It’s authored by Mark Salter. Continue reading →

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June 15, 2014 · 5:21 am

Running the Gauntlet in Academia: The Case of “Selfless Sacrifice” — A Rejected Article

Michael Roberts

20 24 LTTE tuyilam illam at Vadamaratchchi, November 2004 —Pic by Michael Roberts …. http://thuppahis.com/2010/01/03/symbolic-postscript-a-terrible-violence/

Preamble I: The wide-open facilities of the cyber world have not only promoted citizen journalism, but also encouraged personnel outside academia to pen articles on complex topics. Needless to say, these vary greatly in quality. That is true within academia as well: journals vary in their depth and quality … and even within reputed journals some weak and/or horrible articles pass the vetting process.

Since visitors to web sites may not be aware of the review process within academic journals, let me clarify matters from my own experiences as an author as well as my editorial roles at various moments for Modern Ceylon Studies (1970s at Peradeniya University) and Social Analysis (1979-1990s at Adelaide University). Continue reading →

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June 13, 2014 · 3:26 pm

From Godse and Gandhi to the Selfless Sacrifice of Tamil Tigers

Michael Roberts **

“I must reduce myself to zero” (Mahatma Gandhi)

Mahatma Gandhi 11 Gandhi nathuram-godse-11Godse  13c--Prabha with pistol-2Pirapaharan

I am indebted to Dennis Hudson for the insights via Gandhi which inspire this article: “Gandhi was a martyr to satya, which is ‘truth’ or ‘true being,’ or ‘being true,’ …. Truth’s power radiates through the person who participates in it by eliminating the personal ego-centered passion that distorts it. Truth is God whom Gandhi called Ram. To serve Ram as a conduit for his gracious power in the middle of India’s violent political life, Gandhi had tried for years to reduce himself to “zero” [as he himself expressed matters]” (Hudson 2002: 132).

GandhiThis transcendental orientation guided many of the Mahatma’s interventions in the tumultuous era of Indian nationalist politics. During the course of one such intervention, as he walked to an evening prayer meeting at a friend’s house in New Delhi on 30 January 1948, his life in this world was viciously terminated by an assassin named Nathuram Godse.[1] Paradoxically, both Godse and Gandhi were inspired by the Bhagavad Gīta (Jaffrelot 2003). The Gīta was a foundational inspiration for a long line of nationalist or fundamentalist thinking beginning with Tilak and extending into the Hindu fundamentalist stream of thinking associated with Savarkar who “invok[ed] the motif of Hindu religious sacrifice.” Already a member of the Hindu Maha Sabha, when Savarkar founded an offshoot called the Hindu Rashtra Dal in 1942, Godse became the editor-in-chief of its newspaper (Jaffrelot 2003:300-11, quotation from p. 304).[2] Continue reading →

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